TEST – A TOOL FOR EVALUATING STRATEGICALLY INTEGRATED PUBLIC TRANSPORT Christian Brand Transport Studies Unit, Oxford University Centre for the Environment Professor John Preston Transportation Research Group University of Southampton ABSTRACT The EPSRC-funded TEST project has developed a strategic evaluation tool for integrated public transport. The prototype software helps users to explore the most appropriate public transport technology (or technologies) for urban and short distance inter-urban corridors. The tool aims to support the strategic assessment of local transport networks by transport planners and operators. For this purpose it combines a number of features: • The integration of a series of existing and new simulation models covering public transport and highway traffic demand and supply; • The inclusion of demand effects (congestion, generated demand, modal shift) and environmental effects in total social cost; • Operating costs based on up-to-date data for each mode, with the option to adjust to local conditions. A spreadsheet model was developed that calculates total social costs as the sum of total operator costs, total user costs and total external costs. This spreadsheet model was linked with a public transport network model (VIPS) and with highway network models (CONTRAM, SATURN) to form the TEST software tool. Through an iterative process, this permits transport demand to be treated as endogenous to the modelling system. We believe the TEST tool represents an important practical and academic advance on existing software. In this paper, the innovative aspects of the model will be described and illustrated. In particular, results will be presented showing the application to a case study of a guided bus system on a busy urban/inter-urban corridor in Oxfordshire. For example, the model calculates an overall increase in social costs (if capital infrastructure costs are included), in contrast to an overall social benefit if capital infrastructure costs are excluded. The benefits are mainly the result of improved service levels for inter-urban bus services and overall decongestion on the road network, while the disbenefits include increased transfers for local services and the dominant capital infrastructure costs. ©Association for European Transport and contributors 2006